A for sale sign is shown in by new homes in Beckwith, Ont., just outside Ottawa, on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2018. The number of Canadian homes sold in March plunged 22.7 per cent from the same month last year. The national average price was around $491,000, down 10.4 per cent from a year earlier. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Canadian home sales plunge 22.7% in March

March home sales volume plunges 22.7%, national average price down 10.4%: CREA

Canada’s real estate industry organization says the number of homes sold in March plunged 22.7 per cent and the national average price was down 10.4 per cent from the same month last year.

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the sales activity marked a four-year low for the month of March and was seven per cent below the 10-year average.

The national average price for all types of residential property was about $491,000, which was down 10.4 per cent from March of last year — with the Vancouver and Toronto markets causing most of the drag.

Excluding Canada’s two most expensive real estate markets, the national average price would be $383,000 — a decline of two per cent from March 2017.

March had the third consecutive double-digit decline compared with the comparable months last year, when prices in the Greater Toronto Area soared to record highs.

CREA says activity was below year-ago levels in more than 80 per cent of all local markets, in all major urban centres except for Montreal and Ottawa, with the vast majority of year-over-year declines well into double digits.